Peanut Butter is what we use on mouse traps when they invade the garage especially during the winter when they're looking for a warm place to nest. Mice seem like a faint memory of the good old days when they were the only critters that caused me heartburn. I know it isn't an annual but the deer ate every leaf off a Hydrangea that I've babied for 8 months back from a bare stick. I kept it in the garage for the winter and only started putting "Gertrude" out for some daylight about 6 weeks ago and out all night, little hussy, about 3 weeks ago. Correction...they didn't eat the 4 leaves that had some sort of brown spots on them. Something is getting over/under the fencing I just put around the Butterfly Garden but there aren't any hoof marks so it's either rabbits or groundhogs. I don't see any burrows under the fence and it's pretty tight to the ground with overhang. I'm going to get some garden pins and see if that helps. I know it won't but it's at least an effort. How high can rabbits reach? Some buds that were almost 2' high were clipped off. From what I'm reading here it seems like it must have been a rabbit since leaves and buds were "clipped" and groundhogs are said to eat wholesale and indiscriminately. Whatever it is they don't seem keen on Cleome or blue Queen Victoria Salvia which they've never touched...not even the ones I have at the mailbox where any critter can step right up from the street or driveway including the deer that sample there every night. What astounds me is there is Curly Parsley and Fennel for Swallowtails in fenced butterfly garden and they don't touch it! Wouldn't you think they would go for those greens first? Guess the expensive "salad bar" is more to their liking. I better get another bag of Bloodmeal and try that all over the butterfly garden. The Butterflies better hurry up or there's not going to be much left for them in the way of nectar. Not having done this before I have no way of knowing what plants will bud and bloom again and what's been finished off for the season. I have Zinnias in pots all over and they don't touch them. The Zinnias in the newly fenced butterfly garden are right there at the buffet so they clip them. Maybe the fence is like a neon sign flashing "Mel's Diner" once I come in for the night.

A) What variety of tree is it - evergreen or deciduous? B) Where do you live? C) Is the cat alright? If you live somewhere that the trees (and this tree in particular) lose leaves for the winter anyway, it will probably leaf out next spring just fine - it just lost its leaves a bit early this year. Don't let it dry out until then, esp. if in a pot - keep watering it when the soil is dry down an inch or so. If you are somewhere that gets HARD freezes, then protect the pot and roots from freezing over the winter by burying the pot in the ground, surrounding it with dry leaves, or the like. Whatever you do, protect it from mice or bunnies chewing on the bark over the winter.

I just posted about this a couple days ago. The two largest fig trees in my neighborhood are doing the same thing... One is white figs the other is Brown Turkey figs. Both trees are chock full of ripening figs. Meanwhile, my 8-tree orchard's trees are thick with leaves and with plenty of ripening figs. Only two things I do different is that I add a quart or so of compost tea daily per tree, and have 4 inches of mulch. But whatever it is, the difference is startling.

Yeah that sounds like a good idea Sheila...I never thought of something like that? How do those work exactly? And Seil I didn't plant in cardboard as in 'packaging the Rose came in' I mean I had moving style boxes I broke down and then I wet them down really good to put under mulch along the slope to deter weeds. I made sure to leave about 5" or so around each plant bare with a little mulch. I did however leave the soil on it when I planted, I didn't try to make bareroot? You think that could've caused it? I just want to know how to save these ...also it rained last night...not sure how hard because it ended at least an hour or two before I woke up so when I stuck finger in soil down so deep that I had no finger left! It felt pretty moist all the way down...but idk how much rain feel so idk if that could happen from the rain we just had overnight? And today has been overcast with next to no sun all day..so sun wasn't out to dry it out.